Speech Practice

2)
What psychological
disorders are mentioned in the text? Give short characteristics of each of
them.

3)
Is a person, suffering
personality disorders, dangerous for society?

4)
Can all these disorders
be treated nowadays? Why or why not?

2.
Look through the text
and give an oral summary of psychological disorders.

3.
Write down a plan of
the text.

4. Read the text
once again and retell it according to your plan.

Supplementary Reading

Read the text
and discuss it using the questions that follow.

Suicide

But life, being weary of these worldly bars

Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

William Shakespeare,

Julius Caesar, 1599

Each year in the
US, some 25 000 to 30 000 wearied, despairing people will say no to life by
electing a permanent solution to what may be a temporary problem. In
retrospect, their family and friends may recall signs that they now believe
should have forewarned them – the suicidal talk, the giving away of possessions,
or the withdrawal and preoccupations with death. One-third of those who now
succeed will have tried suicide before.

Actually, few of
those who think suicidal thoughts (a number that includes perhaps one-third of
all college students) actually attempts suicide, a few of these succeed in
killing themselves. Most individuals who commit suicide have talked of it, and
any who do talk about it are at least sending a signal of their desperate or
despondent feelings.

To find out who
commits suicide, researchers have compared the suicide rates of different
groups. National differences are puzzling. The suicide rates of Ireland, Italy,
and Israel are half that in the USA, those of Australia, Denmark, and
Switzerland differences are suggestive: suicidal rates have tended to be higher
among the rich, the nonreligious, and the unmarried (including the widowed and
divorced). Gender differences are dramatic: women are much more likely than men
to attempt suicide; depending on the country, however, men are two to three
times more likely to succeed. (Men are more likely to use foolproof methods,
such as putting a bullet into the brain.). Age differences have vanished. The
suicide rate among 15 to 24-year-olds has more than doubled since 1955 and now
equals the traditionally higher suicide rate among older adults.

Suicide often
occurs not when the person is in the depths of depression, when energy and
initiative are lacking, but when the person begins to rebound, becoming capable
of following through. Teenage suicides may follow a traumatic event such as a
romantic breakup or antisocial act, and often are linked with drug and alcohol
abuse. In the elderly, suicide is sometimes chosen as an alternative to future
suffering. In people of all ages, suicide is not necessarily an act of
hostility or revenge, as many people think, but a way of switching off
unendurable and seemingly inescapable pain.

Social suggestion
may also initiate the final act: known suicides as well as fatal auto
“accidents” and private airplane crashes increase following highly publicized
suicides.